Reader Comments (1)

Tim Wu makes reasonable and articulate observations, yet the problem is a technocratic mentality rather than technology. A technocratic mentality doesn't necessarily involve advance technology (information and communications, or mass-production technology for example) but an ontology of the cosmos as inherently "neutral" rather than as inherently good and worthy of responsible stewardship. If we view the cosmos as inherently neutral, then consequently we view nature (the natural and human ecology) with suspicion and often as a threat or enemy. Thus, desire is misdirected to an abundance of indulgence and the "liberation" from natural limits in order to "satisfy"--more accurately quell or extinguish--the desire. In actuality, although this many will think this counter-intuitive, our autonomous-technocratic-ontology hates desire and views desire as something to be removed but through indulgence rather than stoic indifference, or some combination of indulgence and therapeutic-psuedo-stoicsm. Nonetheless, desire remains and can neither be removed nor extinguished. The real answer, rather than a neo-Luddite reaction against technology, is a greater awareness of the person as creature--that one's existence is a gift and relation to Thou-who-gives life--and that one responds to the gift of existence with love and gratitude.